3 wounded in 2 shootings

A 17-year-old Eunice man has been arrested on five counts of attempted first-degree murder in connection with two shootings that left two men and a 7-year-old boy wounded.
Arrested was Jamie Ned, also known as Jamie Freeman, of North Cane Street, Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said.
The 7-year-old boy was shot near Golden Seafood on East Maple Avenue at about 7:30 p.m., he said. The boy was shot in the hip and treated at Acadian Medical Center for an injury not believed to be life-threatening, Fontenot said.
The shooter’s target was not the boy, but was two people in a passing car, he said.
“He was basically collateral damage because the shooter was standing on the side of East Maple Avenue and started shooting at a passing car which had two people in it. The car had been shot, hit twice, but the people in the car were not injured,” he said
A .40-caliber pistol was believed to be used in both incidents, he said.
Ned was identified by victims and witnesses, he said.
“There has been some bad blood in the past. Past incidents that they were involved in that we believe were probably retaliation-type stuff,” Fontenot said.
“You want to call it turf wars,” he said.
The shooter was on foot when he fired at least four rounds at the people in the car, Fontenot said.
The people in the car were not wounded, he said.
That shooting incident resulted in the three of the attempted first-degree murder charges.
The second shooting occurred at about 10:30 p.m. in the 200 block of Minerva Street where two men, 29 and 30 years old, were wounded, he said.
The wounded men were not the targets in the earlier shooting, he said.
Again, the shooter was on foot, he said.
Both were taken to Acadian Medical Center where one was transferred to an Alexandria hospital and the other to a Lafayette hospital with critical injuries, Fontenot said.
One of the men was believed to have been shot three times and the other once, he said.
Police have not found any evidence that there was an exchange of gunfire, he said.
Ned was arrested about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday at Howard’s Inn on U.S. 190 where two rooms were occupied, he said.
Eunice Police were joined by city marshals and sheriff’s deputies for the arrest.
Fontenot said more arrests may be made as the investigation continues.
The shootings occurred on the eve of a community meeting scheduled at the Southeast Neighborhood Center by the police chief to address safety concerns in the area.
“I scheduled the meeting two weeks ago to prevent, to try to prevent this from happening,” he said. “I’m a day late.”